At times we have to slow down and allow the world to go at its pace, while we rejuvenate and reinvigorate our souls. At times we pray and meditate at other times we find ourselves making the jump from knowledge to wisdom. 

August 5, 2012, Lakewood, CO

11:17:09, hours MDT

...continued hiker’s meditation…

“In life we must learn not only how to live, but how to die well.”

Seneca

Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison

Day 195

When my master and I were walking in the rain, he would say,

“Do not walk so fast, the rain is everywhere.”

Shunryu Suzuki

“Out of the pain of where we have been, many of us come to the mat in a hurry. Our self- study has revealed a universe of pain and loss, while at the same time it has intimated that there is a better way. Some work on the mat has brought some relief; therefore, we assume, more work on the mat will bring more relief. 

So we attend workshop after workshop, attempt postures of ever increasing difficulty. We are in a hurry to escape the pain we have been in and are still contending with, but our haste is self- defeating. Do not walk so fast. The pain you wish to escape is everywhere. Do not walk so fast. The grace you seek is everywhere.”

Reminds me about the years of time I put in doing just this. Reminds me about making time to ARRIVE.

Just arriving takes time. Arriving at the mat takes time to adjust to the asana, pranayama and motion in between postures. Patricia Hansen used to tell us in her Yoga class that we will always be “beginners.” I remember the first set of hikes at GRCA 2005 through winter 2007. It took me this many months to adjust from the inculcation to go fast over the course of the last career and living in the socially busy State of Colorado…

Took me a similar time to adjust to living in the SW 40+ years ago too, although blissfully I believe I was not aware of the transitioning time required to Arrive. Suzuki reminds me of the many times I have walked slower in the rain/ weather/ ice- fog of the Colorado Plateau and the 5-day a week walks into and from the Inner Canyon Ranger Station. At some indiscernible juncture with time, energy and matter, I believe I did not walk so fast. I arrived in the present moment. The memories are solid of this- ‘arriving slowly.’

Going fast always gives me a lament for being in such a rush. When involved in evolving it behooves the practitioner to observe the current internal/ external environment and then remove from the environment that which is indicated for the change. Going fast always gives a ‘less than-- result.’

 July 11, 2012

Reading list:

• Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico / E.L. Kolb; with a foreword by Owen Wister ; with 48 plates from photographs by the author and his brother.
• Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power / Steve Coll.

Remember something which may be elusive and confounding at times of attachment to outcomes:

Surrendering into the moment is far better than surrendering those things, circumstances and events which produce agitation in the mind.

 A meditation follows:

Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison

Day 182

“We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” 

 Lao-Tzu

“Aparigraha, or nonhoarding, is the art of appreciating emptiness in ones’ life, but before we can learn to appreciate emptiness, we must first learn to let go.  On the mat we practice aparigraha by letting go of our expectations and letting go of the concerns of the day.  I recently caught myself comparing a class I was taking to another class that I had found more fulfilling.  I paused then and questioned my belief that the other class had somehow been more satisfying.  I realized that the class I had found more fulfilling was one in which I had surrendered more deeply, one in which I had given a big sigh, let go of my day, and relaxed into the moment – with

no thought of how it should be, no repeated clock checks, just childlike compliance and present-

moment awareness.  I had allowed that class to be fulfilling simply by letting go into it.  I had to admit now that I was making a choice not to be fulfilled by the class I was in, that I was so full of my own expectations that I could not receive from the class I was taking.  Aparigraha reminds us to always let go and never hold on.  This letting go is the cultivation of emptiness in our lives.  Into this emptiness, grace will come.” 

Like Rolf suggests, perhaps we should try incorporating more aparigraha and appreciate more— the empty spaces in our lives, the non-happenings, the transitions.

Transitioning is at times a spot I find my self at— much like standing at a bus stop, waiting for the bus to come. It is a temporary lull in the velocities in which I travel, and by extension the rest of us here on the planet. Put this in context of the military- industrial complex or the current divisiveness of the politicos, political hacks and their sirens  They are jockeying for position— best favorable position I might add. Correct? Transitioning seems by this analogy to be outcome focused?

Yes, correct again!

Gates proposes that there is deeper meaning— meaning with depth and weight, I believe. To relax into the moment just as it is and allow the jockeying of the mind to settle out the clamor of the world and the bellowing of the mind.

I find that when I look ahead past transitioning I find moments of stabilization. Stabilizing the moments, and remembering again that beginner’s mind seems to yak and holler as if it is the immature teenager, is worthwhile.   Relaxing into the empty spaces and places seems to take time.

The calls to us to buy our way into pleasure leads to addicting efforts and the goal always is elusive. This surrendering into the moment/ empty spaces seems worthwhile compared.

At times I believe those places in Nature— those special places we all have in our mind’s eye— are the solace producing experiences which when immersed in- produce a change; for some profoundly.

Stillness in motion....

House Finch

At times there is the moment when the stillness is prevalent...
Lake Louise, ALB, CA

June 8, 2012 Lakewood, CO

09:58:49, hours MDT

...continued hiker’s meditation…

Remember it is not what we become saturated with— that becomes the growth and turning points in our living...BUT... how much of this saturation we are able to lay by the wayside as we practice coming into the moment. Our creativity relies on the latter and for some gives the practitioner an inner living that becomes unmistakably rich— with feeling and depth.

This practice is truly REMARKABLE…

Meditations from the Mat, Rolf Gates, Katrina Kenison

Day 170

The conjunction of the seer with the seen is for

the seer to discover his own true nature.

Yoga Sutras

“This is good news. We’ve heard the bad news: we don’t know who we are, which gives us an exaggerated sense of I-ness and pride, which in turn tethers us to an endless round of fear and desire. And if that’s not bad enough, we’re not even supposed to be afraid of death. So, what’s the good news?

The good news is that all of this, every last aspect of this experience called life has only one purpose: our spiritual growth. The intersection of the spiritual with the physical, energy with matter, life with the lifeless, all has evolution as its aim. It is all about evolution, and we are invited to the party. That is, if we choose to go.

Krishnamurti said that we do not learn from the experience; rather, we learn from the experiences we choose to learn from. It’s all about evolution— if we are willing to see it that way. We have free will. The eight- limbed path’s solutions to life’s difficulties offer us a means for making systematic our choice to learn from experience. Yoga is a means for cultivating personal responsibility for our growth. The practices, the yamas, the niyamas, asana, pranayama, and meditation are merely invitations to partake more fully, more completely, in the divine dance.

We have a sense of the problem, and if you are at all like me, you have more than a sense that you have lived it. Now, let’s embrace the solution. Start where you are. Begin to see your entire life as your spiritual practice. Whether it is thanking the person, who opens the door for you,

giving a good tip to your waiter, or the hours you spend sweating on your mat, embrace your place in the moment with all your heart.”

Embrace your self where it is you find yourself dwelling on this type of I-ness or that category of righteous indignation  or where energy meets matter and you sense you are truly carrying around the adipose tissues and sucking in your stomach every time you sense others staring at it.

Embrace your self at the intersection of energy and matter- at the intersection of self- centered pattern and the awareness, the wakefulness of the spirit when it comes to pass that you indeed choose to evolve.

The pathway is broad- for you this will be rewarding however fraught with unknown twists and diversions and back- tracking. 

The solution will not be as straightforward in the false rewarding sense we all have come to know. With the bosses touting these “products”, financial, material, the cruises to so- called exotic spots of luxury or the ubiquitous entertainment of the social- media genre. 

The solution lies within the framework of the yoga practice and in complimentary turn the meditation practice available to all – by choosing this pathway.

Otherwise the chooser has the alternative— more military strife, more political bosses turning down the heat for us in cold times and then gouging us all with their abilities to make us pay their way by making everyday sundries pricey.

This method of living turns off the opportunity to grow spiritually. Choose to learn from those experiences which maintain so- called free rent in your memories.

Breathe deeply of the air, practice yoga and mediation to lessen your reliance on the succor and intoxicating effect of the Amenities Culture with allures us falsely into a basket of passive lethargy. 

Make the time to have the time to be in sync with the time it takes to choose this path. It may mean reducing the business as usual, the false pretenses and the so- called shopping experience we all have come to know as the American Experience and obtaining some outside support along the way.

Yoga is best learned not from a DVD or practicing alone but in a group of like minded ones who will assist you along the way.

Am anticipating the trip onto the North Kaibab Ranger District for a period of reflection, rest and discovery.

June 6, 2012, Lakewood, CO

07:47:59, hours MDT

...continued hiker’s meditation…

Am thinking of a trip into the Aquarius Plateau country in UT and then on south to NRIM… this  NRIM- trip may be a walking/ camping thing on the Walhalla, Kaibab Plateaus and North Kaibab Ranger District with possibly the short part way in to Bruce’s house  the few thousand feet below Bright Angel Point.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=north+kaibab+ranger+district&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1680&bih=904&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=nGDPT_2yG5Gf6QH5lpCuDA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=3&ved=0CFwQ_AUoAg

Zoom out a bit on the link and click on the ‘terrain map’.